SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT INVENTION
This invention relates to a storage holder for a steering wheel lock bar, especially a holder adapted for installation on the rear face of a seat back in an automotive vehicle. The holder is designed to provide a wheel lock bar storage pocket that is relatively unobstructive and space efficient in the automotive vehicle, while at the same time being easily accessible for insertion or withdrawal of a wheel lock bar.
Wheel lock bars are applied to the steering wheels of automotive vehicles for the purpose of preventing vehicle theft. One steering wheel lock that has been used commercially is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,738,127 issued to C. R. Johnson on Apr. 19, 1988. The wheel lock bar comprises an elongated bar having a hook on one end and a key operated lock on the other end. A second elongated bar having a second hook is telescopically fitted to the lock, whereby the bars can be expanded to cause the hooks to fit onto interior surfaces of a vehicle steering wheel so that the vehicle is incapable of being steered.
Commercially available steering wheel lock bars are relatively bulky so that storage of such lock bars in automotive vehicles is a problem. Typically, the steering wheel lock bar has a length of about twenty inches and a transverse width of about five inches. The relatively great long bar length makes lock bar storage and manipulation difficult.
Various storage devices have been proposed for use in automotive vehicles. U.S. Pat. No. Des. 279,061, issued to S. Zabielinsky shows a storage pocket carried on the rear face of a seat back in an automotive vehicle. The storage pocket is not large enough to hold a conventional steering wheel lock bar. The steering wheel lock bar is much too long to fit into the storage pocket shown in the Zabielinsky Design Patent.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,273,769, issued to M. Miller on Sep. 20, 1996, shows a holder for an umbrella locatable on an interior surface of a vehicle door. The holder comprises a socket adapted to receive one end of an umbrella and an upwardly open cradle adapted to support the umbrella at a point near the umbrella handle. The holder shown in the Miller patent is not designed, or configured, to support a conventional steering wheel lock bar.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,706,403, issued to R. Sikes, discloses a cradle structure mountable on a raised portion of a vehicle floor to partially retain a long gun in a prone position adjacent to the driver's seat.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,129,563, issued to J. Dillon, shows a gun storage mechanism located near the front edges of the vehicle front seats, whereby a gun can be stored in a transverse position spanning the two seats.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,222,381 discloses a portable holder for a steering wheel lock bar, wherein two hook structures can be moved to lock the holder to the lock bar. The holder is attached to a chain that is anchored to the vehicle, whereby the holder can be moved a limited distance within the vehicle.
The present invention relates to a storage holder for a steering wheel lock bar located on the rear face of a vehicle seat back. The holder comprises an elongated upwardly open pocket having an entrance opening positioned near the upper edge of the vehicle seat back, whereby the driver can reach the pocket opening by turning in the seat; the driver does not need to leave the driver's seat in order to access the pocket opening.
The holder is mounted in a non-vertical tilted condition on the rear face of the vehicle seat back, such that the elongated steering wheel lock bar is oriented in a non-vertical position while it is being inserted into the storage pocket or removed from the storage pocket. This prevents any obstruction to steering wheel lock bar motion that the vehicle roof might otherwise offer.
In many vehicles the vertical spacing between the upper edge of the seat back and the roof is about twenty inches. The normal length of a conventional steering wheel lock bar is also about twenty inches. If the storage pocket for the steering wheel lock bar were oriented in a vertical position it would be somewhat difficult to insert the lock bar into the pocket or remove the lock bar from the pocket. The upper end of the lock bar would tend to strike the roof during the process of accessing the pocket. By orienting the pocket in a tilted non-vertical position on the rear face of the vehicle seat back the process of manipulating the lock bar into or out of the pocket becomes relatively easy. The vehicle roof does not present an obstruction to lock bar movement.
In preferred practice of the invention the steering wheel lock bar storage pocket is formed at least partly of relatively soft woven cloth materials, in order to avoid human safety problems in crash situations. The pocket structure is kept in an open condition by means of an elongated channel cross-sectioned insert formed of a deformable plastic material having some shock-absorbing capabilities.
The storage pocket may be attached to the rear face of a vehicle seat back by two parallel straps that extend generally vertically at an acute angle to the tilted pocket structure. Lower ends of the vertical straps have hooks that connect with fixed anchorages near the vehicle floor. The upper end of one of the straps is adapted to be looped around a mounting post for a headrest at the upper edge of the vehicle seat back. The looped portion of the strap is connected to an upper end of the other strap, whereby the straps are tensioned to retain the pocket structure in a tilted condition on the rear face of the vehicle seat back.
Specific features of the invention will be apparent from the attached drawings and description of an illustrative embodiment of the invention.
In summary, and in accordance with the above discussion, the foregoing objectives are achieved in the following embodiments.